Saturday, 20 January 2018

Burdas of the month: 4/2017 #116 and 12/2016 #110 - clothes to survive a Sydney heatwave

Looking back through my blog archives I discovered that I started my Burda of the month challenge way back in 2012, inspired by ReadyThreadSew who sadly no longer blogs.

I didn't do very well in my challenge last year though - I only completed projects from four issues. So this year I'm on a mission to not only complete at least one pattern from every issue this year, but also to catch up on those I missed last year as well! And while I'm at it, I may as well try to finish any issues from the previous years that I missed as well. It's an ambitious goal I know, but the beauty of a self imposed challenge is that there's no penalty if I don't succeed, only personal satisfaction (and a lovely wardrobe) if I do.

My January 2018 Burda issue still hasn't arrived, so I'm starting off with issues from the two previous years. Yes that's right - two for the price of one - I'm starting off with a bang. Admittedly they are two simple projects, but I badly needed some more summer pyjamas since Sydney is absolutely sweltering at the moment.

Firstly, the top. This is Burda 4/2017 #116 (no download at the Burda site strangely) which is a simple singlet style top where the side seams wrap around to the front.

The construction is quite interesting and I definitely needed to read the instructions though it wasn't difficult to make. No seam allowances are added to the pattern except at the shoulders, because that is the only seam sewn in the traditional right sides together. All the other seams are bound with bias tape, and then the back is laid over the front at the side and topstitched down.

The only problem with this method is that it's impossible to adjust the fit at the side after the pattern has been cut out. I cut out a straight size 36 for this top, but in Burda patterns I usually use a size 34 at the bust grading out to a size 38 or 40 at the hip, so not unexpectedly this top is too loose at the top and too tight at the hip. I tried to change the angle of the side seam to overlap it more at the top and less at the bottom, but that meant the underarm edges no longer meet so the armhole binding wouldn't have worked:

So be warned - if you want to makke this pattern definitely make a muslin because if you need to adjust the fit at the side seams you'll need to redraw the armhole edges accordingly.

And now onto the sleep shorts. These are made from Burda 12/2016 #110 (which you can download from the burdastyle site), which look like this:

There's not much to say about these really - they are simple elastic waist shorts, with a folded down top to form the waistband casing. They took all of about 30 minutes to sew - can't get more simple than that!

The fabric I bought from Pitt Trading in their recent sale for the princely sum of $5 per metre. It's a lovely crisp cotton which I'm hoping will soften in time after wearing and washing. The navy blue cotton bias tape seems to suit the colours perfectly.

And finally can I just say how ridiculous I felt taking photos of myself wearing pyjamas, and then posting those photos on the internet! Thankfully my next finished project is a dress, which is much more my usual style.

My verdict: the top is interesting but I don't think I'll make it again. I had visions of making it in a silky or sparkly fabric to wear with wide leg pants on a hot summer night, but the straps are too thin and the neckline is too wide - it feels like the straps are about to fall down at any minute. Perhaps fixing the size issue might help with that, but I have lots of other patterns to use that it's not worth the time to fix this. It works fine as pyjamas though! The boxer shorts I think will get made many more times again - such a simple and quick pattern.